Creative Arts Therapy: get it working for you!
Creative Arts Therapy week was spotlighted from March 16-22 in Canada this year. Art therapy is defined by the Canadian Art Therapy Association as a broad term with deep roots.
“When properly facilitated, it can draw on our innate creativity to help us heal, grow and transform.”
People have a comprehensive scope of mental health issues and simply talking to a psychiatrist/counselor and/ or taking mediation is only a remedy for a percentage of those seeking treatment. When it comes to their patient’s emotional well-being, it is critical for treatment providers to recognize when talk therapy is not reaping the desired benefits and to introduce them to other forms of care.
Creative Arts Therapy is the logical next step when traditional therapy has not attained the necessary goals.
From The Canadian Art Therapy Association Journal (Vol. 16 #2, 2003), Lois Woolf writes, “Introduced to this country in the 1940s and ‘50s by Dr. Martin A. Fisher, Selwyn and Irene Dewdney and Marie Revai, … art therapy has grown into a full-fledged profession with training institutes, individual practitioners, institutional connections and professional associations across the country.”
For those who may not be familiar with the art therapy concept of treatment, Erin Goss, MS, RP, MTA, Manager, Patient and Family Support Program – Odette Cancer Centre, Professional Practice and Education Leader, Creative Arts Therapies, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario provided some valuable insight.
Goss says creative arts therapies at Sunnybrook are made up of three professions: Music Therapy, Art Therapy and Horticultural Therapy.
“These provide emotional, physical, spiritual, cognitive and social support for people across all lifespan and function continuums,” she said.
In a brochure published by the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, they list arts therapy as being beneficial to many people including, individuals or communities that have experienced psychological trauma, survivors of traumatic and acquired brain injuries, people experiencing mental health challenges, people experiencing loss or bereavement and newcomers, immigrants and refugees.
As demonstrated by this compendious classification that only covers some of the people who could be positively impacted by art therapy treatment, it is something you should consider if traditional counseling has not worked for you or if you know that one on one talk therapy is simply not how you want to improve your mental state of mind.
Goss says patients participate in a number of activities. Music therapy may include 1:1 sessions with a music therapist or participating in a group, such as the Maritimes music group or Jazz Appreciation group. For art therapy, this may include programs such as woodworking, ceramics, painting and photography, to name just a few.
“Horticultural therapy programs take place in both our garden (seasonal) and in our year-round greenhouse where there is planting and tending to a variety onfpdlants, flowers, vegetables, etc.,” she said.
Kellie D., from Dieppe, N.B. was able to overcome and learn to live with a terrible trauma that happened in her life. Here is her story:
“My entire life was shadowed by what happened when I was eight years old. We were living in Ontario. We moved a lot because my dad was in the forces. My little brother, Keven and I were waiting for the bus. It was winter and the roads were slippery. The bus came around the corner and never even stopped. It slid into my brother and he went under the wheels. The memory is so clear. Like it just happened. He died. My little brother died.”
As she told her story, it was like every word was its own sentence.
When Kellie was 24 years old, her husband started talking more about starting a family. Kellie was terrified of the prospect. She was frozen with fear about having a child because someday that child would have to go to school and that child would probably have to ride a school bus.
After years of living with that horrible trauma, Kellie sought help from OHIP (Ontario Health Insurance Plan) Mental Health Services. She was able to start one-on-one counseling right away.
“From the start, I knew it wasn’t working for me,” Kellie said. “I had talked for years about the accident and I was no better off. The counsellor I had was so nice. She really cared and she got me into an art therapy class. It was there that I finally had a way to express my grief, kind of like an outlet.
“I’m not an artist, can’t even draw a stick man, but when I painted colours on the page, I finally relaxed. It was like I had been tensed up ever since that day. Just, my muscles, they never relaxed. But, when I painted, it was so calming. Exactly what I needed. The grief, the trauma is still there, but when I feel myself tensing up, I get out my paints and instantly feel better as soon as my brush touches the page. The paintings, they are just for me, I don’t sell them or anything but they are my safe place.”
Kellie highly recommends any kind of creative art therapy when people need help. “There isn’t just painting,” she says, “there is music, instruments, drawing, you can even refinish an old table. It works for people who don’t get better from just talking.”
Her and her husband have two children now and though she worries more, she thinks, than most parents would, she has lifted the weight she carried for so many years.
Goss says the universal benefits of Creative Arts includes working to identify and address individual goals based on patient needs, so the benefits are very individual to each person.
Some overall benefits include increased socialization and mood, assistance with adjustment to change, improved gross and fine motor skills, increased opportunities for self-expression, decreased anxiety and agitation and enhanced quality of life.
Depending on your needs, you should consider Creative Art Therapy as an option. As per the outcomes, they are different for everyone. With the variety of art therapies offered, hopefully you can find an outlet that improves your mental health thus leading to a happier, more well-adjusted life.
In order to find out what is offered in your area, contact your local mental health association, your local hospital, library or family physician. You deserve to get the treatment you need and it is the best thing you can do for yourself.